Mariam Dawood School of Visual Arts and Design welcomes new forms of visual experience and offers a multidisciplinary approach as a way to explore the connection between art and different branches of knowledge. We believe that art and design education makes great demands on all who engage in it – the students and Faculty. The School encourages experimentation and aims to ensure that each student is visually articulate and equipped with the ability to consolidate ideas and concepts. Providing students with the opportunity to achieve their creative potential is a primary objective.

The faculty at Mariam Dawood SVAD is drawn from diverse backgrounds. These are well known practicing professionals in their respective fields and it is their hands-on knowledge of contemporary practice that guides the experience of students, who, from the outset have a choice of intersecting through disciplines, blurring and questioning existing lines and engaging in a close dialogue between the local and the global.

TDF Trustees with Sartaj Aziz and Salima Hashmi at the opening of new MDSVAD building

Hussain Dawood and guests are being welcomed at inauguration ceremony

Mariam Dawood School of Visual Arts and Design draws its well-qualified faculty from all parts of the world; from the Great Britain, Scotland, Germany, as well as from within Pakistan. Among these are internationally renowned professionals and art educators. The Faculty regularly participates in local and international exhibitions, undertakes design and community projects and participates in seminars, conferences and workshops.

In its first year in 2004, the school enrolled 65 students from an application pool of 158 candidates. Currently 270 students are enrolled at SVA in various programs. Renowned alumni of the institution include top bridal couture designer Fahad Hussayn and winner of 18th International Contemporary Art Festival, Brazil, Basir Mehmood.

“As the first faculty member of Mariam Dawood School of Visual Arts and Design (SVAD), Beaconhouse National University (BNU) and now the Dean, I am grateful to honorable Mr. Hussain Dawood for his generous contributions towards SVAD and BNU. Mr. Hussain Dawood has not only contributed intellectually in the capacity of our honorable member of the Board of Governors but I am much indebted to him for his financial contribution of Rs. 200 million through the Dawood Foundation for the construction of the academic blocks of the Mariam Dawood School of Visual Arts and Design. We had a modest beginning in 2003 with just 47 students but our purpose-built building has enabled us to expand our academic offerings in a befitting eco-system for germination of ideas and imagination. At present Mariam Dawood School of Visual Arts and Design is serving the academic needs of over 370 students and has ventured in to introduce some pioneering degrees in the fields of Art and Design at both undergraduate and graduate levels. This could not have been possible without the support we have received from Mr. Hussain Dawood and the Dawood Foundation. Mariam Dawood School Of Visual Arts and Design is the only institution in the region that has students enrolled from all SAARC countries, and I am certain that the contributions made by Dawood Foundation will go a long way in nurturing the next generation of artists and designers from not only Pakistan but the entire South Asia region.”